Jail for Mansfield man who went on stolen credit card spree

Court Reporter

A Mansfield man who was handed a stolen bank card which he used on a shortlived spree has been jailed.

Lee Goody used the Santander card to withdraw £300 cash from the NatWest bank, then tried to obtain £305 of goods from JD Sports, as well as £80 from an ATM, said Ruth Snodin, prosecuting.

The court heard the card’s owner had her handbag stolen while she was sitting on a park bench in Mansfield, on the afternoon of November 2, last year.

“He told police he knew nothing about the theft of the handbag but that someone gave him the card,” said Mrs Snodin.

“He said he hadn’t done anything with it and didn’t intend to.”

She said Goody had a “long record” which showed he was “stuck in a cycle of drug abuse and theft.”

Goody, 30, of Wainwright Avenue, admitted two counts of possessing criminal property, one count of fraud, and two counts of attempted fraud, when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates, on Thursday.

Melanie Hoffman, mitigating, said: “A member of his group took the hand bag. He didn’t know where the card came from, but he knew it wasn’t a legitmate source.

“At the time he was homeless and his claim for benefits had been stopped. He wanted the money to buy some clothes.”

She said he had problems with amphetamine, heroin and methadone, but had made “significant progress” since his last release from prison.

“He doesn’t want to go back into the cycle of using methadone,” she said. “He is not particularly concerned about a custodial sentence, but he will be prescribed methadone and again the problems start.”

Ms Hoffman asked the bench to adjourn sentencing for two weeks, to see if he can “prove he deserves the opportunity to have a non-custodial sentence.”

She said: “Give him the opportunity to see if this is the time to break this cycle.”